Prosperity

Quotes about prosperity:

Sourced

• ...abused prosperity is oftentimes made the very means of our greatest adversity...
  • Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (1719).

• Surer to prosper than prosperity could have assur'd us.
  • John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667; 1674), Book II, line 39.

• There shall be in England seven halfpenny loaves sold for a penny: the three-hooped pot shall have ten hoops; and I will make it felony to drink small beer.
  • William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part II (1590-91), Act IV, scene 2, line 70.

• Prosperity's the very bond of love.
  • William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale (c. 1610-11), Act IV, scene 4, line 584.

• Oh, how portentous is prosperity!
  How comet-like, it threatens while it shines.
  • Edward Young, Night Thoughts (1742-1745), Night V, line 915.

Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 637-38.

• In rebus prosperis, superbiam, fastidium arrogantiamque magno opere fugiamus.
  • In prosperity let us most carefully avoid pride, disdain, and arrogance.
  • Cicero, De Officiis (44 B.C.), I. 26.

• Ut adversas res, secundas immoderate ferre, levitatis est.
  • It shows a weak mind not to bear prosperity as well as adversity with moderation.
  • Cicero, De Officiis (44 B.C.), I. 26.

• C'est un faible roseau que la prospérité.
  • Prosperity is a feeble reed.
  • Daniel d'Anchères, Tyr et Sidon.

• Alles in der Welt lässt sich ertragen,
  Nur nicht eine Reihe von schönen Tagen.
  • Everything in the world may be endured, except only a succession of prosperous days.
  • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Sprüche in Reimen, III.

• Prosperity lets go the bridle.
  • George Herbert, Jacula Prudentum (1651).

• The desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.
  • Isaiah, XXXV. 1.

• I wish you every kind of prosperity, with a little more taste.
  • Alain René Le Sage, Gil Blas (1715-1735), Book VII, Chapter IV. Henri Van Laun's translation.

• Felix se nescit amari.
  • The prosperous man does not know whether he is loved.
  • Marcus Annaeus Lucanus, Pharsalia, VII. 727.

• They shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig-tree.
  • Micah, IV. 4.

• Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour.
  • Proverbs, III, 16.

• Est felicibus difficilis miserarium vera æstimatio.
  • The prosperous can not easily form a right idea of misery.
  • Quintilian, De Institutione Oratoria, IX, 6.

• Res secundæ valent commutare naturam, et raro quisquam erga bona sua satis cautus est.
  • Prosperity can change man's nature; and seldom is any one cautious enough to resist the effects of good fortune.
  • Quintus Curtius Rufus, De Rebus Gestis Alexandri Magni, X, 1, 40.

• Quantum caliginis mentibus nostris objicit magna felicitas!
  • How much does great prosperity overspread the mind with darkness.
  • Seneca, De Brevitate Vitæ, XIII.

• Semel profecto premere felices deus
  Cum cœpit, urget; hos habent magna exitus.
  • When God has once begun to throw down the prosperous, He overthrows them altogether: such is the end of the mighty.
  • Seneca, Hercules Œtæus, 713.

• La prospérité fait peu d'amis.
  • Prosperity makes few friends.
  • Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues, Reflexions, XVII.

• Prosperity doth bewitch men, seeming clear;
  As seas do laugh, show white, when rocks are near.
  • John Webster, White Devil, Act V, scene 6.

Unsourced

• Prosperity seems to be scarcely safe, unless it be mixed with a little adversity.
  • Hosea Ballou

• Prosperity is very liable to bring pride among the other goods with which it endows an individual; it is then that prosperity costs too dear.
  • Hosea Ballou

• It is one of the worst effects of prosperity to make a man a vortex, instead of a fountain; so that, instead of throwing out, he learns only to draw in.
  • Beecher

• Watch lest prosperity destroy generosity.
  • Beecher

• The increase of a great number of citizens in prosperity is a necessary element to the security, and even to the existence, of a civilized people.
  • Buret

• He that swells in prosperity will be sure to shrink in adversity.
  • Charles Caleb Colton

• Prosperity demands of us more prudence and moderation than adversity.
  • Cicero

• Prosperity, in regard of our corrupt inclination to abuse the blessings of Almighty God, doth prove a thing dangerous to the soul of man.
  • Hooker

• We must distinguish between felicity and prosperity; for prosperity leads often to ambition, and ambition to disappointment.
  • Landor

• They who lie soft and warm in a rich estate seldom come to heat themselves at the altar.
  • South

• Prosperity is the touchstone of virtue; for it is less difficult to bear misfortunes than to remain uncorrupted by pleasure.
  • Tacitus

• Few of us can stand prosperity. Another man's, I mean.
  • Mark Twain

• Take care to be an economist in prosperity: there is no fear of your being one in adversity.
  • Zimmerman

References

• Klopsch, Louis, 1852-1910 (1896). Many Thoughts of Many Minds.